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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



POEMS OF REVOLT 

AND 

SATAN UNBOUND 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

AN ISEULT IDYLL 

DELILAH 

LOVE'S TESTAMENT 



POEMS OF REVOLT 

AND 

SATAN UNBOUND 



By 
G. CONSTANT LOUNSBERY 



NEW YORK 

MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 

1911 



nil 



Copyright, 191 i, by 
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 

New York 



All Rights Reserved 
Published, September, 1911 






THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS 
RAHWAY, N. J. 



©CLA291 





CONTENTS 








PAGE 


Invocation 3 


The House of Hope 










5 


Ode to America . 










7 


The Beggars 












8 


The Prisoner 












10 


Betrayed 












14 


Maternity .. 












16 


The Curse . 












. 17 


To France . 












19 


Lines to a Roman Temple 








19 


Les Marchandes d' Amour . 








20 


Call op the Night 








22 


Hymn to the Forest 








23 


Work 








24 


Autumn Dirge 








25 


Homeless (Lullaby) 








26 


Spring Song ~ 








28 


A Poet's Grave 








28 


The Secret .... 








30 


The Future 








31 


SATAN UNBOU1 


STD 










. 33 



POEMS OF REVOLT 



POEMS OF REVOLT 



o o 



INVOCATION 



Thou Mother, and mistress, and muse, 
Through the desperate days of the year, 

When the ghosts of dead hours haunt the hearth, 
With compassion and comfort be near. 

In the whip of a merciless wind, 
How the world with its weariness writhes, 
While the barren tree silently points 
To the fugitive moon in the skies. 

All my heart is an ember consumed, 
And my youth is a garment outworn, 
For the roses of love that is fled, 
In the present have put forth a thorn. 

In the pitfalls and snares of the past 

1 have fallen, and sinned against thee, 
I have bowed to the yoke of the world, 
I thy poet, thy chosen, born free. 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

I have clothed me in manifold lies 
That my days might be wrapped in their ease, 
I have hated thy truth, I have strayed 
Through the perilous pathways of peace. 

I have murmured the maxims of men 
With the lazy indulgence of slaves, 
I have walked with the fool, I have hid 
From thy light in the dark of thy caves. 

I have said, " They are legion, alas, 
" Shall I war with impossible things, 
" Shall I follow the path of the sun, 
" To the sound of invisible wings ? " 

" For men move as the universe moves 
" In a circle that does not advance, 
" Shall I tilt with our destiny, dare 
" Kisk the delicate shaft of my lance ? " 

But the hope of my heart has betrayed 
All the reasoned reflection of man, 
Shall the soldier seek peace at the hearth 
When the battle cry rouses the van? 

In the night, in the terrible night 
Comes the moaning and mourning of men; 
And the sound of the serpent of Strife, 
Like the hissing of snakes in a den. 

4 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

For in heaven, alas, is no god 

While a victim is writhing in hell, 

Yea, and who shall cry out in his pride, 

" Though the world weep, with me all is well " 

Therefore, out of the rapture of rest, 
I who fled am returned unto thee, 
With a song and the sword thou hast blest 
To do battle, till all men be free. 

Even were it a dream, then the dream 
Is in truth worth a cycle of pain. 
Who shall say that the sun shall not gleam 
Behind torrents and tempests of rain! 



O O 



THE HOUSE OF HOPE 

Stranger, what house in the dark of the night 
Looms like a castle that harbors delight, 
Girded with garlands, and smilingly dressed, 
Glowing with warmth like a haven of rest, 
Say then what Goddess, what mortal so blessed 
Holds this dominion in fee to her might ? 

This is the House of Hope, all may behold, 
Welcome, the watchword, the passport of old, 
Beggar and pauper and poet within 

5 



POEMS OF REVOLT 

Feast in their glory and pray for their sin. 
All who escape from despair here may win 
Welcome and warmth and a friend in the fold. 

High in her tower sits Hope at her loom 

Saving the victims of Life from their doom, 

High in the tower a light that shall shine 

Dimming the darkness a signal and sign. 

Tended hy Hope like a vestal divine 

Glowing with Beauty that burns through the gloom. 

High in the tower she sits, and she sings 
Songs of her fashioning, songs that have wings 
Slumbering sorrow, and songs whence joy springs; 
Dreams too she weaves of a justice for man, 
Dreams of a world that the future shall plan 
Hope to the outcast her pitying brings. 

She alone feeds with her hand liberty, 
She alone bids man endure, to be free, 
She alone lights and leads humanity. 
Prisoner, sorrower, dreamer, take heart, 
Lend her your loyalty, stand ye apart, 
Battle, my brothers, for ye, and for me. 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 



ODE TO AMERICA 



Country, my country, superb in thy pride, 

Towering with mountains, and wooed of the tide, 

Lulled to the lure of a thunderous lyre 

As the wind sweeps thy forests with fingers of fire, 

Shining with cities that sparkle their light 

Dazzling as stars in the skirts of the night. 

Marvellous, multiple, marching along, 

Oh, take heed and beware of the sob in thy song ! 

Since thou art hailed as the land of the free, 
Who are the thousands that march listlessly, 
Eyes full of anger and hate on each face, 
Of what nation are they and what race is their race ? 
Whence come these slaves, and what terrible foe 
Casts on our shores all its wreckage of woe ? 
Tell me, ye weary, whence come ye, and why 
Are ye like a brute herd that is led forth to die ? 

" Starving and stricken with fever and want, 

" Broken with bitterness, weary of cant, 

" We are thy children who seek, who demand 

" Either freedom to live or to die by thy hand. 

" Mammon, a monster of terrible greed, 

" Tramples our ranks, and makes sport of our need, 

" Many are idle, and many in pain 

" For the labor that cripples them cry out in vain ! " 

7 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

Country, my country, the sun on thy brow, 
Sacred and strong, sets the seal of thy vow. 
Where is thy help, and what might is thy might 
If the babe thou hast reared is to die in thy sight ? 
Gird thee, awake thee, come down from thy lair, 
Famine devours, greed befouls what was fair. 
Hallow the vow that was born of thy breath 
Lest there be desolation, destruction and death. 

Did not the mountains take heed and give ear, 
Did not the forests, majestic, austere, 
Murmur with multiple leaves " Liberty " 
And the shore whisper it to the pulsating sea ? 
Did not the nations of all men rejoice, 
Heartened with happiness, hearing thy voice? 
Is it not treasured deep down in thy caves 
And the sea has it not hid thy word in her waves 

o o 

THE BEGGARS 

Sordid stroller of the street, 
Eyes of hunger, shuffling feet, 
What have I to do with thee 
And thy trailing misery — ? 

Take this pittance, turn away, 
Go thy aimless, angry way, 
Dull resentment in thy mind 
Smouldering against mankind. 

8 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

Why, within my secret room, 
Through the softly-scented gloom, 
By the fireside's glint and glow, 
Steals the vision of thy woe? 

Say what wrong did I to thee 
To endure thy misery? 

Who art thou, and who am I? 
Does some deep affinity 
Bid me hear thy baffled cry, 
Smite me with thine agony % 

Not the very lips of love, 
Murmuring, are heard above 
That wild weeping in the night, 
Shivering our vain delight. 

I beseech thee, take from me 
Thy intruding misery! 

Thou hast stricken my content, 
Joy before thee steals away, 
Happiness, the heaven sent, 
Hungering is held at bay. 

Wreck of wandering weariness, 
Mine, the blight of thy distress 
Turning here, and turning there, 
I behold thee everywhere ! 

9 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

Lift thy curse, the curse from me, 
Beggar, of thy misery! 

Hollow, haggard, in the glass 
Thy face is my face, alas ! 
Beggar, thou art one with me, 
One with my humanity — ! 

O O 



THE PRISONER 

{To the author of "A Ballad of Reading Gaol 
and " The Soul of Man Under Socialism ") 

No jailer sits before the door, 

No turnkey shouts, " All's Well/' 

No sentry paces up the floor, 

No bugle, and no bell 

Rings its commands to fettered hands, 

My jail is wide as Hell. 

Behind the scars of iron bars, 

That stripe the light of day, 

They have not cast a man to shame, 

Nor hidden me away, 

I bear an all untarnished name 

Upon my prison way. 

10 



POEMS OF KEVOLT 

I wear a well known uniform, 

We count a million men, 

Who march the street from night to morn, 

From morn to night again. 

Each in the rags that are our tags, 

Our livery of scorn. 

Despair we call our corporal, 

Our marshall, Poverty! 

We have no muster, no roll call, 

Too numerous are we ; 

And some are short, and some are tall, 

But all are sad to see. 

~No daily rations are our fare, 

ISTo water and no bread, 

We feed upon God's own pure air, 

The statesmen find us fed! 

If we complain, alas in vain, 

We soon are quieted. 

They hang the murderer with mirth, 

And then they cut him down, 

They give him six feet two of earth, 

Here in the crowded town. 

In vain through life, I seek with strife 

A square foot of my own. 

I thought, his sleep is sweet and deep, 

I envied him his rest, 

Alas, the priest cried, " Watch and weep, 

11 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

" What, would you die unblessed ? 
" The suicide shall sorrow reap 
" In hell all unconfessed." 

And then I climbed the prison wall, 
It was well kept within, 
There each man sat at even fall, 
Well guarded for his sin, 
Each had a bed, a loaf of bread, 
Would I could such fare win. 

I cried, " O prison, shelter me ! " 
The guard cried, " Get along." 
"lama criminal." "We'll see!" 
" What have you done that's wrong ? " 
The magistrate said, grim as fate, 
" He's giving us a song ! " 

" Contempt of court ; ten shillings, sir, 
" Or ten days, take your choice — " 
My brain was in a perfect whirr. 
" Ten days ! " joy broke my voice. 
" Hard labor too's the cure for you — " 
A job ! O boys, rejoice ! 

I've got a job, that none can rob, 

A week of honest toil, 

The bath, the bed don't cost a bob, 

A book by Conan Doyle. 

God ! after that — I choked a sob, 

I'll sleep on hai *3r soil. 

12 



POEMS OF KEVOLT 

Up spoke a youngster, " I protest, 

" Your Honor, let him go, 

" I'll pay his fine—" " Perhaps 'tis best, 

" Discharged ! " My luck, you know. 

" Thank God," said he, " for liberty! " 

I stood out in the snow ! 

The wind goes swinging down the street, 

The wind sits in the tree, 

It has no home and no retreat, 

Twin wanderers are we — 

I slip along; I've done no wrong, 

So no wall shelters me. 

Then Death and Life walked either side, 

Each held a weary hand, 

Said Life, " I will not be his bride, 

" Come join him to thy band, 

" So lean and lorn, and so forlorn, 

" His destiny is planned." 

But with a sigh, Death made reply, 

And turned his head away, 

" I follow only when men fly, 

" I seize unwilling prey, 

" The outcast's call none heeds at all, 

" He has no debt to pay! " 

" Cast dice for him " — Then in a trice, 
I saw that they were three : 
One look alone did qn^e suffice 

13 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

To show mine enemy! 

Death vanished, Life gave up the strife, 

For there stood Misery! 

O O 



BETRAYED 

Russia, January 5, 1905. 

Who are these in the light of the morning 
In a silent and sorrowful throng, 
Without arms, without sound, as of singing, 
Without music, thus inarching along? 

They are peaceful, pathetic as children, 
They are dumb as if marching to doom, 
As the sheep to the slaughter, these strong men, 
Or as martyrs athirst for the tomb. 

They are numbered in hundreds and thousands, 
They are marshalled by sorrow and pain, 
They are driven by hunger, as quicksands 
That are moved by the wind and the rain. 

They are seeking their loved one, their Father, 
And with hope in their hearts, they would cry, 
"It is Thou whom we seek, and none other, 
" We who hunger, who suffer, who die. 

14 



POEMS OF KEVOLT 

" We are thine, we are thine for thy bidding, 
" By the love that we cherish of thee, 
" Be not thine the indifference forbidding, 
" These thy people, to love and be free. 

" With our hands we will serve and defend thee, 
" With our blood we will drown out the foe, 
" Let us talk with thee, plead with thee, see thee, 
" All we seek is to know, is to know ! " 

But what cry like a stab in the silence, 

With a shuddering moan as of pain, 

Rends the heavens with pity, and why, whence, 

On the pavements this blood and these slain % 

They are fallen and praying for mercy, 

In their wonder, their terror, their fear, 

While their brothers, their comrades, with fury 

Whip them there, strike them now, shoot them here ! 

And a sound of immutable weeping, 
And of anger astonished, defies 
The coward assassin who, keeping 
In his hiding, is armored in lies. 

" Peace," he said to the world, and it wondered, 
And what now shall ye say to this thing? 
Ye have heard, oh ye nations, he thundered, 
Prom the dark he has darted his sting. 

15 



POEMS OF KEVOLT 

Have they yielded in war, have they faltered, 
Have they fled, or complained when they fall, 
When their fortune was false have they altered 
In their faith or allegiance at all ? 

And a wave of our great indignation 

Shall declare us their friends, unafraid, 

Let them rise as a man, as a nation, 

With the war cry, the one word, " Betrayed ! " 

O O 

MATERNITY 

Call a halt, ye, and listen, give ear and take heed, 
All ye Mothers of men, who have mocked in your 

pride, 
Ye who bid us bear children and drift on the tide 
Of a terrible life force that blindly will breed. 

Are not we the true mothers of men, we who say 
Let the living have Life, let the child born be free, 
As we cry " Halt, surrender ! " to fierce Destiny, 
" Ye must pass our dead bodies to seize on your 
prey"? 

Nay, not blood of our blood these, but heart of our 

heart. 
All our children these outcasts, whom ye have 

passed by 
With the wisdom of those who rear young life to die. 
O ye mothers, our part is a holier part. 

16 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

We have listened at night to the falling of tears, 
To the terrible tears that trickle like rain, 
Shall the world propagate and perpetuate pain, 
And shall Life bear Death fruit through immutable 
years ? 

Shall the travail of women, the wail of the babe, 
Shall the shuddering silence of bondmen who toil, 
Those who falter in famine while others reap spoil, 
Not appall with the horror of Life's living grave? 

Like a man in the silent, the terrible tomb, 
Like a man who is closed in the still place of Death 
They are buried alive, and each gasp of their breath 
Is a cry like the child's that bursts forth from the 
womb. 

Halt, ye Mothers, and listen, stoop down and bend 

low 
To the weeping of those who are born but to die, 
Give ye ear and take heed, yea, and answer their cry, 
Shall our life breed such life? JSTo, a thousand 

times no! 

o o 

THE CURSE 

This is the curse, that man of woman born 
Shall be from darkest night to brighest morn 
A Thing of scorn. 

17 



POEMS OF KEVOLT 

Behold, where'er he turns each path is barred, 
Each Eden by a flaming sword is marred, 
Each Adam scarred. 

Together do we march, together stand 
Or labor valiantly, hand helping hand 
Across the land. 

We force our fainting brother to the wall, 
We pause to watch his tears, to see his fall, 
We mock his call. 

Behold him on his aimless, endless beat 
Return again with tired, discouraged feet, 
Eecoil, advance, retreat. 

His eyes are worn with watching and his hands 
Will ache with idleness — who understands 
His chainless bands. 

Behold his woman, bounden unto man 
To starve, or feed his foolish lust, life's plan 
Since life began ! 

'A criminal indifference has slain 
The living dead whose voice cries out again 
The curse of Cain! 

18 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 



TO FRANCE 



Sun-loved lover of liberty, oh France, 

Sweet glorious land, the magic of whose name 

Uttered, is like the unfurled oriflame 

Before the hosts of freedom that advance; 

Not as a stranger curious of thy chance 

But as a lover jealous of thy fame, 

Through blood, through battle, through defeat, 

through shame 
We watch the uplifting of thy countenance. 

Seas cannot sunder us, nor time divide 

Our ancient heritage of liberty, 

Thou old world sentinel of all men free, 

The old wrongs live, the old hates have not died, 

Lead on, lead on against the tyrant gold 

To whom all men are slaves, now as of old. 



O O 



LINES TO A ROMAN TEMPLE 

There is a haunting unread mystery 
Where the proud temple empty stands alone 
Hearing the whispers of the wind bemoan 
The onward march of man toward destiny ! 

19 



POEMS OF REVOLT 

Some unsuspected music with delight 
Pulsating through the twilight throbs its joy 
While the belated unseen shepherd boy 
Mocking our tuneless days puts Time to flight. 

We pause, we listen trembling on the verge 

Of unknown wonders, for our souls have been 

A moment face to face with the unseen 

Where life and death, where flesh and spirit merge. 

Pace after race descends the flights of Time, 
Roman and Celt and Gaul, and none endure, 
Yet we live on in what we can ensure 
Of sculptured loveliness, or passioned rhyme. 

A song, a statue, only these remain 

A mighty heritage, Beauty alone 

Leads man from age to age up to the throne 

That he aspires to, that he shall attain. 

O O 

LES MARCHANDES D'AMOUR 

Phantom ghosts of gaiety, 
Pity, pity, pity ye! 

Hearts of hate and lips of love, 
Whither, whither do ye rove? 
Who will buy the offered smile, 
Who fulfil your fate awhile ? 

20 



POEMS OF KEVOLT 

Like a host of leaves when driven 
From the starry haunts of heaven, 
Drifting on the tide of chance, 
Wind-whirled in fantastic dance. 

Mincing mien and flaunting air, 

Gaudy, garrulous and fair 

As a booty or a spoil, 

Captured, caught, with snare and toil. 

Selling pleasure, selling joy, 
Tantalizing, tortured toy; 
Tricked and trafficked, mocked and marred, 
Branded, baffled, scoffed and scarred! 

Wander, wander whither, why? 
Ye who pay while all pass by, 
Casting stones each at his sin 
As he spurns in you his kin. 

Fools of fortune, pity ye — 
Your bejewelled poverty ! 

Hounded like a hare at bay, 
That no coup de grace will slay, 
Like a bird of broken wing, 
Wild, defiant, fluttering. 

Hither, thither, drearily, 
On and onward, wearily; 
Laughing, cursing to defy 
Stifled sob and surging sigh. 

21 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

Scorned and feted, sought and fled, 
Living tomb when love long dead, 
Through the hours of memory 
Haunts the hearth and gibes at ye. 

Pleasure then with whip in hand 
Lashes on the maddened band, 
Till ye seek oblivion 
'And the goal of death is won. 

Victims, shall we pity ye 
More than they whose cruelty 
Blind and brutal in its might 
Sells despair and buys delight ? 

Pools are they, and ye and we — 
To endure life's anarchy! 

O O 

CALL OF THE NIGHT 

Night marches clothed in mighty mystery, 
The net of darkness trailing in her hand 
Is cast about the still quiescent land, 
Whilst star on star swims up an azure sea. 

What shapes, what shades of human misery 
Unseen beneath the sun, whose faces scanned 
Strike sorrow in our heart, come band on band 
With suffering confront us, crouch and flee ? 
22 



POEMS OF REVOLT 

Hide, hide away your scorn and hush your curse, 
We have not broken ye, ye birds of night, 
And ye, ye maids, whose laughter chills delight, 
Whose flowers hide the horror of a hearse. 
Appalled we pause, we pity, we regret, 
Then helplessly we pass, and we forget ! 

O O 

HYMN TO THE FOREST 

Hail, sacred guardian of the mysteries 
That hedge our lives about, that penetrate 
Our hidden thought, moulding our mortal fate, 
And baffling all our vain philosophies ! 

The wind goes swinging down thy winding ways, 
The sunlight pours his beauty on thy breast, 
The dancing rain leaps lightly to his rest, 
And many a winged insect hums thy praise. 

Teach me thy magic, lay thy healing wand 
Upon my weariness, lead me apart 
And pour thy melodies into my heart 
That I may sing them to the barren land. 

Give me thy peace, thy beauty, cover me 
With all thy shelter, smooth the weary frown, 
That through the toil and turmoil of the town 
Thy sweetness and thy strength may follow me. 

23 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

For I would build thy temple once again, 
And where man prostrate fell upon the sod 
Adoring, I would raise him up, a God, 
Sound, simple, sweet, peaceful, serene and sane. 

O O 

WORK 

And the word of the world shall be work 

As we wake to the sense of our own, 

As ye stand, hand in hand, 

With the might of the brand 

Where we faltered and fell when alone. 

For the head shall not war with the hand, 

JSTor the woman do battle with man, 

Each for all be our cry, each for all be our call, 

Without class, without caste, without clan. 

Peace we whisper and peace through the strife, 

Seeking life and our birthright of joy, 

With the help that shall heal 

The dull wounds we conceal 

As they break us to fashion a toy. 

And let no man be idle or vain, 

And let no man be crushed by his toil, 

Like a beast at their feast 

They have slighted the least, 

And corrupted their hearts with their spoil. 

24 



POEMS OE EEVOLT 

We the workers whose will shall not fail, 

We the workers who cry not in vain, 

Each for all, we give hail, for onr hearts shall prevail, 

As we labor in joy, not in pain. 



o o 

AUTUMN DIRGE 

Golden brown, 

Sifting down, 
Over turret, turf and town; 

Every leaf, 

Like a grief, 
Taking flight at autumn's frown I 

Eound and round 

O'er the ground, 
How they nutter, all earth bound! 

How they dance 

In a trance, 
Now recoil and now advance! 

Never more 

Shall they soar 
Toward the heavens as before! 

Still they try 

For the sky, 
Tortured leaves that cannot fly! 

25 



POEMS OF KEVOLT 

Why will ye 

Restlessly 
Follow and then flee from me? 

Are ye then 

Hopes of men 
That may never soar again. 

Back away, 

Ghosts at bay, 
Must I be your hunted prey? 

Has life shed 

Us and fled, 
And can Death thus scorn the dead 

O O 



HOMELESS 

Lullaby 

Mother's baby, her delight, 
Sleep, oh, sleep, the moon so bright 
Lights her taper; she has shed 
Kisses on thy helpless head. 

Mother's heart shall hold thee warm, 
Swung aloft on mother's arm; 
Cradle bed nor home have we, 
Yet the stars dance merrily. 

26 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

Though a demon, whispering, 
Murmurs, " Death is pitying," 
Though the wind, a wolf at bay, 
Gnaws my naked heel away — 

Though a host of butterflies 
Flit and flutter through the skies, 
As the snow with cloak of white 
Spreads our coverlet to-night — 

Wind nor cold shall harm my flower, 
Guarded by a mother's power; 
Heart of mine, O little heart, 
That no break of birth shall part. 

Though with thee came poverty, 
ISTone so rich as I in thee ! 
Bowed before the altar, men 
Worship motherhood, and then — 

Scatter, leaving us to pray, 
Begging on our hungry way; 
In the council statesmen plead, 
" Give us children in our need ! " 

Hush, my baby, sleep, while I 
Hate and Fate and Life defy. 
Sleep, the moon keeps pace with me 
Lest I sleep and waken thee. 



27 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 



SPRING SONG 



There is a joy in the mere breath of life 

When the wind sweetens with the scent of Spring, 

And the low lisping southern waters sing 

A lullaby to wild and wintry strife. 

Ah then the heart forgets its weariness, 
And timidly puts forth its buds of hope, 
Smiling with sun-born faith at man's distress, 
Knowing all happiness within his scope ! 

Joy strong to strengthen, joy to purify 
A world deluded with vain suffering, 
To banish strife, join hands and hearts, defy 
The old sad order and proclaim the Spring. 

O O 

A POET'S GRAVE 

Silence and solitude and shy-eyed sleep 
Above the melancholy murmuring pine, 
Fluttered with wings that thrill the ancient vine, 
A watch eternal o'er thy slumbers keep. 

And here the multitude in pilgrimage 

Pauses the hurry of its vagrant feet, 

While Life and Death like hostile sovereigns meet 

To read the annals of another age. 

28 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

For thou art one with all high holy things, 
Beside the silence of the dormant stream 
Thy spirit hovers like a haunting dream 
And pulses in the note the wood-bird sings. 

We tremble on the verge of the unseen, 
Circled about by many a mystery, 
Knowing not what shall be nor what has been, 
Ignoring man's innate divinity. 

High singer of the sad equality 
Forced on us all by all-embracing Death, 
Late heritage, sealed with our failing breath, 
When shall we learn to live immortally ? 

When shall we banish and subdue the strife 
Of man with man, and God against the world, 
When shall the banner of proud peace unfurled 
Float o'er the boundless universe of life ? 

When shall our days in comradeship and love 
Fall as the petals of a perfect flower, 
Distilling beauty through the ripening hour, 
Drawing down heaven from the clouds above ? 



29 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 



THE SECRET 

Since joy is like a bubble 
That glows, then melts away 
Within the mists of trouble 
That tantalize the day. 

Since Pleasure in her playing 
Is hounded hard by pain, 
And Love for all gainsaying 
Blows hot then cold again. 

When sleep is horror haunted 
By ghostly dreams that fright, 
And roses spring enchanted 
Await the winter blight. 

What cheer when life is hollow, 
And fragile all things fair, 
While every path we follow 
Leads somewhere to Despair? 

Hide in thy heart the beauty, 
Build deep within thy soul 
A palace of thy booty 
Where Time has no control. 

With cypress tree and willows 
And stately columns set, 
By mystic seas whose billows 
Murmur " Forget, forget." 

30 



POEMS OF REVOLT 

Here May shall cry " Kemember " 
And Hope shall rise and sing, 
Disarming sad November, 
Defying Winter's sting. 

Roses and rest and rapture, 
One love that cannot fail, 
These treasures of thy capture 
Enchanting hill and vale. 

One smile shall banish sorrow, 
One friend make all men true, 
One dream defy the morrow, 
One rose wake spring anew ! 



O O 



THE FUTURE 

little life so brief, so bitter long, 
So vain of joy, so vexed with futile pain, 
With vanities of hope, with greed of gain, 
Then silenced like the ending of a song! 

Strange as the labyrinth of some wild dream, 
Bewildered and perplexed I watch the show, 
Hurried along to some goal none may know, 
And blindly battling toward some distant gleam. 

31 



POEMS OF EEVOLT 

With now a tear, and now a smile or sigh, 
I see the pageant of my days and thine, 
O world half bestial, human, and divine, 
Till life forgetting us shall pass us by! 

Unto the dizzy centuries I cry, 

" Hope on high-hearted, mould and make your Fate, 
" The stars attend you, and the great suns wait, 
" Dare on though Destiny himself defy. 

" Out of the present hell of life, from clay 
" Inanimate and ugly, shape and form 
" The human god to greet the growing morn, 
"And build his heaven here, To-day — To-day!" 



32 



SATAN UNBOUND 

A DRAMATIC POEM 
IN 

THREE ACTS 

To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite, 
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night, 
To defy power which seems omnipotent, 
To love and fear, to hope till hope creates 
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates. 

—Shelley ("Prometheus") 



TO 
M. S. P. 



PREFACE 

Shelley: the magic of his name must ever be dear 
to all who are rebels, impatient as he was of all but 
perfection. It is only through discontent that we 
push on to something higher, always higher. 

Rebellion and repression are two mighty forces 
necessary to keep the world in equilibrium; repres- 
sion lest it speed on too fast and so miss the mark; 
rebellion lest it stagnate where it should evolute. 
In the war of these forces lies the action of this 
drama. 

It is well to remember that America is the work 
of a band of rebels, and to-day we need again to 
unshackle the hands of bound liberty; we are 
crushed in the cuirass of custom ; we are stereotyped, 
we are plagued with old world prejudices; we need 
to be large living and compassionate. Happiness is 
forbidden man while he is the oppressor or the 
oppressed. 

Of rebels, Satan is the greatest prototype, bring- 
ing man discontent with his little state. He gives 
the knowledge of good and of evil and also the dream 
of immortality; for this he pays the price of pain; 
the curse is to find only misunderstanding, for he is 
in too far advance of his multitude. Defying Des- 

35 



PKEFACE 

tiny, he still is the instrument of a destiny that con- 
tains us each and all; in this knowledge he at last 
finds peace. The good he gives is thought evil until 
man learns that evil is negative and that he must 
seek in his own soul the secret god. Humanity is 
an organic whole, who injures the smallest part 
injures each and all of us. 

In every myth there is hidden a meaning and each 
man must, as he may, interpret it, nor tremble if 
he differs from the might of a Milton. I have given 
of my own measure; it is no concern of mine what 
becomes of it, neither failure nor fortune are of 
importance; but this only counts that a man shall 
dream, that a man shall dare. 

G. Constant Lounsbery. 

Paris, 1910, 

Hotel de Biron. 



36 



Act I. 

A primeval oak grove. Late afternoon. 

Act II. 

Ruined castle in the depths of the valley Des Beaux. 
The Tenth Century, a. d. Night. 

Act III. 

Cemetery in Paris. Early morning. 
Time a. d., 1910. 



CHAKACTEKS 
Act I. 



Satan 

The Comrade 
The Queen 
The High Priest 
The Child 
1st Merchant 



2nd Merchant 

3rd " 

4th " 

A young woman 

An old woman 

Priests, soldiers and people 



Act II. 



Satan 

The Comrade 
King of the East 
King of the West 
Priest of Buddha 
Priest of Christ 



A Poet 
A Courtesan 
A Leper 
Four Merchants 
Witches, maidens 
people. 



and 



Act III. 

Satan 3rd Phantom — Mirabeau 

1st Phantom — Socrates 4th Phantom — Washington 
2nd Phantom — Brutus A Maiden 
A Workman 



38 



Act I. 

A primeval oak grove with three paths, right, left and 
back of stage, leading into forest. Back stage, the bank 
of a river. Left stage, a throne, hewn in a rock and 
sheltered by a large oak. Eight centre, a Druidical 
stone altar. 

Discovered Satan clad in gold scale armor. The 
Comrade enters left stage and comes timidly towards 
him. 

THE COMEADE 

Celestial Comrade, hail ! First by thy might, 
Thy beauty, thy divine intelligence, 
Among the gods that radiate like stars 
Around the sacred sun of Destiny, 
Vouchsafe to tell me, for my love of thee, 
Why thou art come among the race of man % 

SATAN 

Who may behold the secret thought, and know 
The hidden purpose of his slightest deed, 
Or what wide circles in the sea of Fate 
The slightest pebble, cast with careless hand, 
Shall spread? And so I answer not, nor seek 
With wealth of words to deck mine ignorance! 
Some impulse urged me here, and so 'tis well ! 

39 



SATAN UNBOUND 



COMRADE 



Would it were well for thee and thy renown ! 
Canst thou, a god, commune with lesser man, 
Abortive creature whom the womb of Fate 
Has fashioned neither god nor animal ? 
Fiercer is he than beasts of prey that prowl, 
And terrible in his intelligence, 
A foe to man and beast, he lives, alas, 
Destroyer, seeking ever to destroy. 

SATAN 

Be not impatient in complaint, but know 
Perfection leaps not, patience hews her path. 
Nature, who fashioned man a mortal, seeks 
To raise in him an immortality. 

COMRADE 

Satan, beware, lest pity in thy heart 
Betray thee. 

SATAN 

Pity! Thou hast said! 

COMRADE 

Alas! 
Have pity then of thee. 

40 



SATAN UNBOUND 

SATAN 

Yet hear my mind, 
And understand this mystery of man. 
Desire, blind desire goads him on, 
Wisdom he knows not, immortality 
He seeks not, but — within the moment mured, 
Bewildered in the labyrinth of life, 
Remembering not the annals of his race, — 
He moves within the web of ignorance. 
Life leads towards life complex and intricate, 
From seed to flower, then to fairest flesh, 
Yet one in beast and bird and blood of man. 
Within each cell the racial memory 
Of each inheritance, with strange desires 
And baffling instincts warring, wills its way. 
Confusion works within the human mind 
Perplexed, and purposeless, and impotent ! 
What if man knew, what if he could divine 
These workings ? He who was a clot of clay 
Might he not consciously become a god ? 

COMRADE 

I have the secret of thy thought, and fear 
Is oft the herald of foreboding fate, 
Pity betrays thee, unto such as these 
Satan is come to give forbidden gifts. 

SATAN 

I value nothing, nothing call mine own, 
But that which freely I may give again ! 

41 



SATAN UNBOUND 



COMRADE 



Is it not then decreed and known to thee, 
The curse on him who shall betray the gods, 
And give to mortals knowledge and the thirst 
For wisdom or for immortality? 



SATAN 



What is forbidden is ordained! The curse 
Stirs in me deep resentment and revolt, 
Law that is harmony is obvious, 
Unconsciously obeyed. 

COMRADE 

What wouldst thou then? 
Learn suffering to teach a beast delight? 

SATAN 

If I alone might pay the fatal price ! 

COMRADE 

And who are we to say what penalty 

Man too shall pay, what evil out of good 

Shall grow and wreck this daring dream of thine ? 

SATAN 

Thy speech is like a mortal's, ignorant, 
There is no good, no evil. 

42 



SATAN UNBOUND 

COMEADE 

We who see 
The sum of all things that the mind resolves 
Know pain is but a warning, evil too 
The discord of disordered harmony 
That comes in broken rhythms to our sense. 
But man all imperfected, impotent, 
Perceives but fragments of a shattered whole, 
Ignoring all things. Were this well for him ? 
Might he not for his harm behold the truth, 
Seeing the evil, fancy it the good, 
And so in his confusion curse himself? 

SATAN 

I know not, what a menace in thy words ! 
Yet, since my utter ignorance ordains 
A risk to mortals, I will hold my peace. 
We, finite bits of all infinity, 
Know not the sum of things. 

COMEADE 

Wisdom prevails 
Let us be gone, what have we here to do % 

SATAN 

Stay, I would see who comes, and if perchance 
The fairest of all mortals, crowned their queen, 
Lights with her beauty their dark ignorance. 

43 



SATAN UNBOUND 

COMRADE 

Farewell, and of my words take heed. 

SATAN 

Farewell. 

(Exit left stage Comrade. Satan 
Jiides among the oaks left stage. 
The Queen enters right stage es- 
corted by the High Priest, Cap- 
tain, and soldiers clad in leopard 
shins and armed with swords and 
spears. She takes her place upon 
the throne.) 

HIGH PRIEST 

Justice, O Queen ! A scandal in the land 
Demands chastising, lest it do thee harm. 

QUEEN 

Speak as thy heart shall counsel thee, great priest, 
I listen. 

HIGH PRIEST 

Custom is the heritage 
And wisdom of our fathers. By its law 
We do excel the beast. We rule, we reign 
By fear. 

44 



SATAN UNBOUND 

QUEEN 

Fear is the sceptre of the state, the sword. 

HIGH PRIEST 

Beware lest mockery shall blunt the blade. 

QUEEN 

Less craft, cunning man, speak out thy will. 

HIGH PRIEST 

A sacred custom of the land, O Queen, 
Is daily violated. 

QUEEN 

Who is he? 
Who braves our laws ? 

HIGH PRIEST 

The Queen has done this thing. 

QUEEN 

The Queen? Choose well thy boastful speech, O 
Priest. 

'4-5 



SATAN UNBOUND 



HIGH PRIEST 



Yet listen in humility and judge. 
Thy son 

QUEEN 

My little son, unhappy child ! 

HIGH PRIEST 

An ancient and a sacred law commands 
That at his birth each weakling shall be slain. 
He lives, whose life is forfeit, he, thy shame. 

QUEEN 

I sheltered his first smile, I hoped in vain 
The years might yield him beauty! 

HIGH PRIEST 

Idle dream. 
And pitiful, for how then shall the host 
Despising this thy fruit still honor thee? 

QUEEN 

One weakling counts not in a herd of men 
What harm is his, he cannot work us ill. 
I gave him life, and death I may not give. 

46 



SATAN UNBOUND 



HIGH PRIEST 



Yet if we nourish weaklings in our race 
At war with nature all untamed, — at war 
With men like beasts but thirstier for prey, — 
We are disarmed before the enemy. 
Not this alone I see; thy royal might, 
How shall it make men tremble at thy throne 
If thou dost fear % 

QUEEN 

I fear? 

HIGH PEIEST 

If not afraid 
Why shield this living sorrow, mocking thee, 
That shames thy motherhood? Thy child should 

be 
A light, a loveliness, swift, subtle, strong. 

QUEEN 

Torment me not, he lives, it is too late. 

HIGH PEIEST 

Too late, a coward's word that shackles slaves. 

QUEEN 

If such thy zeal why hast thou not destroyed 
This error of my flesh ? 

47 



SATAN UNBOUND 



HIGH PEIEST 



Almighty Queen, 
Thy word and thy command should urge the deed. 
That once again the host may fear, and bow 
Before thy power, passionless and stern, 



As is a god's. 



QUEEN 



I ? Must I do this thing ? 
Would ye had slain him, sleeping on my breast 
So sweet, so small, in infant innocence. 



HIGH PRIEST 



I yielded to thy prayer, yield thou in turn, 
Lest one and all we flee from force, and fall 
Unthroned. But since death comes to all at last, 
To all an end, what matters when the day ? 

QUEEN 

Are ye then all agreed, ye holy men, 
Is there no other way, and must he die % 

HIGH PEIEST 

The child must die. 

QUEEN 

Ye soldiers, say your will. 
48 



SATAN UNBOUND 

CAPTAIN 

The child must die, no chief of men is he. 

QUEEN 

I order, I decree his death, that men 

May know me without weakness, free of fear. 

HIGH PEIEST 

To-day the divers, the assembled tribes 
With wares for barter, bringing tribute, come. 
The Queen weighs justice equally to all. 
They shall not see thy son, let him be slain. 

QUEEN 

So swiftly, must it be so suddenly? 

HIGH PEIEST 

The child must die. 

QUEEN 

So be it. 

(The child enters hack stage; his arms 
full of flowers, he comes limping 
in.) 

49 



SATAN UNBOUND 

CHILD 

Mother, see, 
All these for you, so fair, so cool, so sweet. 
The children of the camp cast stones at me, 
The women whispered, then I ran, I ran, 
They called me slow-foot, speckled toad, and yet 
The little birds come to me when I call, 
They sing, they sit upon my shoulders 

QUEEN 

Peace ! 

CHILD 

But I must tell you, if the fairy flowers 
Are happy with me, tell me 

QUEEN 

Make an end. 

CHILD 

You will not listen, but the mountain stream 
Sings sweetly to me secrets, while the breeze 
Shakes all the little leaves to sport with me, 
Each has its wonders, each its mystery, 
They call me and they seek me. I must find 
What they will tell me. 

HIGH PEIEST 

Shall this be a man, 
This babbler? 

50 



SATAN UNBOUND 



CAPTAIN 



Shall he wield the smiting sword 
And bathe in blood, a leader ? 



CHILD 

No one hears, 



And no one understands. 

QUEEN 

Be brief, have done. 
(The soldiers seize the child.) 

CHILD 

Mother they hurt me, oh, they hurt me, help, 

I am so little, I will be so small ; 

They are about to do some wickedness 

That frightens them, they grow so rough, so fierce 

To hide their fear. 

captain (turning away) 
I cannot. 

HIGH PRIEST 

Bind his eyes. 



Lead him away. 

51 



SATAN UNBOUND 



CHILD 



Oh, they have killed the flowers. 
They are afraid. What makes them tremble so % 

CAPTAIN 

Thus with our shields, and face turned away, 
Crush out his life. 

CHILD 

Alas, O Mother, oh! 

(The soldiers encircle him and are 
about to crush him when Satan 
with flaming sword surges among 
them, scattering them on every 
side.) 

SATAN 

Might against might, ye beasts of prey, give way. 
Art thou calm Nature's self, to smile and smile 
And slay thine offspring, mother, murderer ? 

QUEEN 

I will not live defeated, strike me down, 
For surely thou a god art come to kill. 

CHILD 

Be not afraid; see, Mother, he is strong 
And calm and gentle. Strength can do no ill. 

(Exit child.) 

52 



SATAN UNBOUND 

QUEEN 

I fear thee not, give me thy sword, that I 
May die defying thee in life and death. 

SATAN 

I come to teach thine ignorance, O Queen. 
I pity thee, I bring thee gifts so great 



QUEEN 

Have I then need of gifts, the world is mine. 

SATAN 

Beauty is thine that glitters, proud and vain, 
Ignorance too is thine of thy desire, 
Ignorance of thine aim and of thy need, 
And savagery is thine that slays and slays, 
Till it be slain with thee and hid away. 

QUEEN 

Insolent prince, since thou art conqueror 
My ransom waits thee, name it, and release ! 

SATAN 

The child's life is my price. 

QUEEN 

So let it be, 
Yet how can beauty covet ugliness ? 

53 



SATAN UNBOUND 

SATAN 

O Woman, hast thou looked upon thy child ? 

QUEEN 

He shames me. 

SATAN 

Said I not thine eyes were blind ? 
Hast thou not seen a tiger for her young 
Do battle ? Does the pelican not feed 
Her life blood to the smallest of her brood ? 
Shall not his weakness waken strength in thee, 
His feeble flesh be sweeter to defend, 
His helplessness be holy? 

QUEEN 

Strange indeed, 

stranger, is thy speech. 

SATAN 

An unknown world 
Shall open unto thee, who hast not known 
A lover's kiss ; for thee who in thy flesh 
Fashioned a loveless fruit, brought forth in scorn. 

QUEEN 

1 have obeyed the laws of life and man, 
Conceived in pain, brought forth in peril this — 

54 



SATAN UNBOUND 

My child who shames me, I withheld from death 
The babe condemned, and so defied the law, 
Though now I do repent me. 

SATAN 

Nay, rejoice, 
For thou shalt live to see his loveliness. 

QUEEN 

Now do I fear thee, I who knew not fear, 
Some ray of beauty seems to fall from thee 
Upon the babe. Alas, I would that he 
Were godlike, great and goodly as thou art. 

SATAN 

Beauty is thine and mine to look upon, 
Within his heart his loveliness is hid. 

QUEEN 

Yet give him of thine beauty, let there be 
A sign that he is favored of the gods, 
For sacred secrets surely must be thine. 

SATAN 

Would I could give thee of the gift of love. 

QUEEN 

What then is love ? 

55 



SATAN UNBOUND 

SATAN 

Nor god nor man shall say. 
A mighty moving mystery that moulds 
The heart to harmony. What words shall wake 
This wonder for thee, ignorant, since hate 
Holds heart from heart, and hand from sword- 
bound hand! 
What simple simile shall show this thing ? 
Yet that which man ignores the beasts divine ; 
Hast thou not seen some humble-hearted hound 
Caress the hand that buffets him, and leap 
With joy to hear one voice, one footfall near, 
Indifferent to all save one alone ? 
Hast thou not seen him guard his master's grave 
And die deserted, giving life for love ? 
That which man still ignores the beasts divine. 

QUEEN 

Hate have I known, that holds men separate 
And binds them jointly 'gainst a common foe. 
Desire, brutal lust akin to hate, 
That hunts its prey and downs it, I have known. 
But love I have not seen. 

SATAN 

And shall not see. 
A million moons will not suffice to show 
This mystery to man. Yet, should he learn 

56 



SATAN UNBOUND 

The secret of this force that flows through life, 

Welds heart to heart, dissolves the single self 

Within the sea of unity, and thrills 

The sluggish flesh with fairest flower of fire 

Illuminating spirit, he would scale 

The happy heights that harbor only gods. 

QUEEN 

Some warmth within my heart awakening stirs- 
Say on. 

SATAN 

The great earth nurtures this thy race 
Resolving through the cycles, thou in turn 
Hast given forth a seed of flowering flesh, 
Thy child, who waits for love. The bond of life 
Is never severed at the break of birth. 

QUEEN 

I look upon him with new eyes, it seems 
A yearning grows within me. I would be 
Above him and about him like a cloak. 
To fold him soft against a world of harm, 
To treasure him, to serve him. Only mine, 
My child, my little self, and yet, methinks, 
It were a sweetness to renounce all self 
For him adoring. What is this new thing 
That moves within me, masters, sweeps me on, 

57 



SATAN UNBOUND 

And bears me helpless as upon a sea 

That seizes suddenly a babe at play ? 

What moisture brims mine eyes and darkens sight ? 

SATAN 

A tear is shed to hallow tenderness. 
My lips salute thee lest its bitterness 
Should stain thy beauty, and a kiss is born. 

(Satan kisses her.) 

QUEEN 

How soft, how sweet, how strange, Oh, fold me so — 
I am diffused and scattered, I am lost 
And found within the refuge of thine arms. 
Stranger thou art, yet nearer than my heart, 
And mine, and mine 

SATAN 

What riot in thy words. 

QUEEN 

Say thou art mine, thou shalt not leave me more, 

Alas, alas, I suffer, for no hurt, 

A joy too heavy seems to weigh me down. 

SATAN 

This too is love, fear not, and yet beware, 
In loving only is all love fulfilled. 

58 



SATAN UNBOUND 

Only the love we give returns to be 

The rapture, the reward of having loved, 

Happy in giving of its happiness, 

But seeking in its selfishness lies pain, 

Sorrow, and many a subtle suffering. 



QUEEN 

I will grow lovely with love's loveliness, 

And bless thee with my beauty for thy gift. 

My heart rejoicing would give out to all 

Thy secret. Master, lead me on, and on, 

And show my people this new mystery. 

Yea, turn the bond of hate which binds their hands 

Together 'gainst a foe, to bond of love. 

Reign thou and rule though over them and me. 

(Re-enter right stage High Priest, 
Captain, soldiers, people and chil- 
dren.) 



HIGH PRIEST 

O Queen, hast thou no harm ? 

CAPTAIN 

The hostile god, 
Has he not slain thee ? 

59 



SATAN UNBOUND 

QUEEN 

Soldiers, priests, and ye, 
Ye hosts, draw near, hear ye and heed my words, 
A mighty power conquers us, but wills 
A lasting good. This god shall be your king 
And so reveal the gods' own mysteries, 
That you, who are as beasts in ignorance, 
May now become far mightier than men. 

HIGH PRIEST 

The Queen has spoken, even we as fools 
Before his wisdom were afraid and fled. 

CAPTAIN 

So let it be, like weaklings we were bowed 
Before the flashing of his sword. Hail, King. 

HIGH PEIEST 

Hail, King, we are thy people, we are thine. 
Thy secret shall be shrined within our heart. 

CAPTAIN 

Thy force shall soon abase our every foe. 

QUEEN 

Teach us thy will, thy way. The god has shown 
A new world and a life no dream has told. 
Teach us thy mysteries. 

60 



SATAN UNBOUND 



SATAN 



How shall I see 
Their ignorance, and hide within my heart 
The knowledge guarded jealously hy Fate! 
What seek ye, men, throughout the mortal years ? 

HIGH PEIEST 

We know not. The high gods forever live 

And know all things. The low beasts live their 

day 
And know not why. Hunger pursues them ; fear 
Doth teach them hate. They breed, they die, their 

young 
Do even so, so live we, so we die. 
And yet we sorrow, knowing this, that we 
Are bounded by a sea of ignorance. 
Help thou our helplessness ! 

QUEEN 

I conjure thee 
Refuse us not this refuge, heed our prayer. 
We bow, we bend, we worship in our need. 

SATAN 

Thus am I cursed and smitten with their pain. 
Shall I then suffer silence and endure 
The pleading of their blind despair, how thus 
With sorrow watch eternal sorrowing? 

61 



SATAN UNBOUND 

Better defy the gods and pay in pain 
The gift, mine be alone the bitterness. 
So be it. 

HIGH PRIEST 

Speak, we wait, we cry to thee ! 

SATAN 

The gods live on, ye say, the gods are wise, 

They know all things and they abide for aye. 

Wisdom and immortality man too 

In time shall conquer. Nature works her way, 

Nature who holds us as the changing sea 

Holds all its drops of water separate: 

She moves and moulds us, gods and men and 

beasts, 
Toward wisdom and toward immortality. 

HIGH PRIEST 

Hard words, what thing is needful? 

SATAN 

Discontent! 
This first, that ye perceive how low your state. 
Desire, this is needful, great desire, 
Of which all things are born. If ye forget, 
If ye be as the beasts, whose bellies rule, 
Senseless and satisfied with ignorance, 

62 



SATAN UNBOUND 

Then shall ye sink to beastliness again, 
And all its works and ways, that make for hate. 
If ye shall learn the mystery of love, 
The link of life to life, if hand in hand 
Ye labor, each for each to share the earth, 
From knowledge unto knowledge ye shall grow, 
From life to life, from star to star ascend 
Until ye conquer immortality. 

HIGH PRIEST 

We are thy slaves. 

SATAN 

Alas, be ye as men, 
Be masters each, each over self a king, 
None serving none, yet each one serving all, 
All serving each, for this is happiness. 

HIGH PRIEST 

Hard words, what first ? 

SATAN 

The Queen shall tell the way. 

QUEEN 

First this, as beasts when driven by wild lust 
Ye live no longer, choose ye each a mate, 
A comrade, a companion, for your days, 

63 



SATAN UNBOUND 

And cleave ye each to each in helpfulness. 
Let not the mother rear alone her young, 
But let the man defend her and his child. 

PEOPLE 

This will we do. 

QUEEN 

Choose ye. 

CAPTAIN 

Shall no man choose 
But one ? 

QUEEN 

One only. 

CAPTAIN 

Brown, or black, or blonde, 
Blonde, black, or brown? 

(He chooses a maiden.) 

AN OLD MAN 

She is not thine, stand back. 

CAPTAIN 

Will she not have me, dullard ? 

64: 



SATAN UNBOUND 



OLD MAN 



She is mine, 
My goods, my chattel, mine to do my will. 

CAPTAIN 

Nay, she is for my pleasure, since my strength 
Gives power to subdue her, or to slay. 

QUEEN 

They quarrel. 

SATAN 

Make an end of folly, peace ! 

HIGH PRIEST 

It is our right, the highest in the land, 
To choose the fairest women of the flock. 

CAPTAIN 

Shall we then by whose sword all ye enjoy 
A stale tranquillity, not have our say ? 

QUEEN 

They look with hatred 

65 



SATAN UNBOUND 

CAPTAIN 

Henceforth we are all 
As rivals, now as when we sort the spoil 
That follows battle. 

HIGH PEIEST 

Though the god be wise, 
With all possession jealousy is born 
And hatred at the heel of jealousy. 

CAPTAIN 

Seize, soldiers, each a mate! 

QUEEN 

Alas. 

SATAN 

Ye fools, enough. Go each man to his place, 
In meditation and in fasting strive, 
And for a month live separate, then come 
Before the throne again with quiet mind, 
And let each tell his choice before all men. 

HIGH PEIEST 

So let it be, behold the day wears on — 
Sell ye your wares. 

66 



SATAN UNBOUND 

1st merchant 

Who buys a fine young kid ? 



A WOMAN 

Three chickens for a kid. 

1st merchant 

Three chickens ? Four! 

A WOMAN 

No, three, old miser. 

2nd merchant 

Wheat, white wheat. 
A sack of wheat, who buys ? 

3rd merchant 

A snow-white pig 
For thy white wheat. 

2nd merchant 

No pig, hast thou a sow? 
A better bargain promising ten pigs. 
The wheat will yield an acre if 'tis sown. 

67 



SATAN UNBOUND 

4th merchant 

A sheepskin for thy wheat. 

2nd merchant 

I will not trade. 
Who knows how much of wheat a sheepskin counts ! 
Since thou art king, decide. What will he do ? 

(During this scene Satan has de- 
scended into the river; he comes 
bach, his hands full of nuggets of 
gold,) 

SATAN 

A common measure for your merchandise. 
Six pieces for a sheep, a bag of wheat 
Six pieces. So henceforth a man may sell 
That which he would not keep, and take away 
Portable value, that shall let him buy 
The thing he covets, when and where he will. 
Out of the river's mouth I bring ye gold 
Precious and rare and malleable, divide. 

1st merchant 
And who shall guard the gold, come give it me. 

HIGH PRIEST 

Shall not the priests, for in it lies a force 
That wise men will control? 

68 



SATAN UNBOUND. 

CAPTAIN 

Some hostile tribe 
That hears of this new wealth, with sword and 

spear 
Will come to wrest it from you. It is ours, 
By right of the strong sword, to guard, to give. 

1st merchant 
It is the Merchant's measure. Give it us. 

CAPTAIN 

Seize ye the treasure. 

HIGH PRIEST 

Gold! 

MERCHANTS 

The gold! 

SOLDIERS 

The gold! 

(They go off the stage still disputing. 
The child runs in and the Queen 
seizes him in her arms.) 

69 



SATAN UNBOUND 

QUEEN 

My son, my little son, new born for me. 

A WOMAN 

Her son? 

2nd woman 
A Queen's son? 

1st woman 
Look at mine. 

2nd woman 
And mine! 

1st woman 

A fishwife would be shamed by such a child. 
Is a child worth a thought ? Behold the Queen, 
As if she found a treasure ! 

2nd woman 

Nay, but ours 
Are beautiful, the world is changed to-day. 

CHILD 

Mother ! 

70 



SATAN UNBOUND 



QUEEN 



Hide closer, sweeter, sweeter so, 
World-hated, mine the more, my little one ! 

(Priests, people and soldiers come bach 
violently fighting. The child slips 
from his mother s arms and rushes 
among them to try to stop them. 
He is caught in the fray and dis- 
appears.) 

Alas, my people, and alas, my prince, 
The blood-price stains thy gold. 

1st woman 

O Queen, behold 
My son, my little son. 

2nd woman 

And mine. 

(The people fall bach and in the clear- 
ing is seen the Queens child slain.) 

QUEEN 

My child — 
Oh, give him me again, this very hour, 

71 



SATAN UNBOUND 

Only this hour, my heart awoke and knew 
The joy of him. Not dead, not dead indeed, 
But sleeping. 

child (moaning) 
Mother. 

1st woman 

Call upon the god, 
For he shall waken him. 

2nd woman 

We wait thy word. 
We kneel before thee, show us all thy might. 

SATAN 

O Death, yield up thy dead, I conjure thee, 
By this mine immortality, renew 
His loveliness to light. 

QUEEN 

He moves, he lives, 
No, he is still, so strangely still, alas 
It cannot be, beseech the god for me. 

captain 
Is not a god omnipotent? 
72 



SATAN UNBOUND 



SATAN 

Alas, 
I weep with thee, for none against the law 
Of nature shall prevail. 

QUEEN 

O Mockery, 
O bitterness, is this indeed thy gift ? 
Why hast thou come to torture us with love ? 
Hard hate was not so pitiless. The sun 
Seems fallen from the sky, my day is dark. 
Give me my child again or take my curse. 

HIGH PEIEST 

The gods are wroth with us and so chastise 
Our vain presumption. Immortality 
The fair king promised, he has taught us death, 
Now suddenly death seems most terrible, 
Death that was but an end has darkened life 
And casts its fatal shadow o'er the flesh. 
He is no god, therefore avenge the gods. 
He whispered wisdom, all his wisdom loosed 
The sea of hatred, let it sweep him hence. 

SATAN 

Not in a day, O men, not in a day, 
But through eternity, we must attain 
The growing love that works for good. 

73 



SATAN UNBOUND 



QUEEN 



Enough ! 
Pluck out my heart and harden me with hate, 
For sorrow is the seed of love, and life 
A seeking which shall end in empty death. 



HIGH PRIEST 



Make way with him ! 



CAPTAIN 

Yea, let him expiate, 
Disarm him. With his magic sword, O Queen, 
Smite him who smote us. 

(Satan lets himself be disarmed, 
bound, and thrown on the altar.) 

So we sacrifice 
Upon the altar to the dreaded god 
This boaster. 

(Captain stabs him.) 

Conqueror, hate conquers thee ; 
I feared thee, know my fear was in thy flesh. 

74 



SATAN UNBOUND 

HIGH PRIEST 

I worshipped thee, I curse thee in my turn. 

(Each in turn plants his dagger in the 
body of Satan and goes out. When 
the stage is empty, Satan breaks 
his bonds and comes down from 
the altar, the daggers fall from 
him.) 



SATAN 

The sword of solitude alone remains 

And stabs me with each heartbeat, woe is me. 

Out of love, sorrow. Out of knowledge, sin. 

From wisdom, folly. Immortality 

That seeks the spirit, falls within the death 

Of all the fragile flesh. Pain, ever pain, 

And war for peace. I gave them of mine own 

The fruits of happiness, yet suffering 

Is all they reaped. Alas, what have I done ? 

The night steals on, the leaves are murmurous, 

They seem to call me softly. Comfort me, 

Ye spirits of the wind, that wakes a world 

To music. 



VOICES 

Satan. 

75 



SATAN UNBOUND 



SATAN 



Speak, what would ye say, 
Ye voices of the soft, sweet-breathing night ? 

(Satan tries each path in turn.) 

voices (right stage) 
Spirit of evil, Satan, hail, all hail. 

voices (centre) 
Spirit of evil, Satan, hail, all hail. 

voices (left stage) 
Spirit of evil, Satan, hail, all hail. 

SATAN 

The way is barred, the earth gives out the curse, 
I hear the doom of dread Destiny, 
And all I do shall turn to hurt and harm, 
Till good grows evil. Whither shall I turn ? 
Where hide, and how escape this cruelty ? 
What though through pain, and senseless suffering, 
I walk with man proclaimed his enemy, 
No fate shall conquer me, nor take again 
From out man's heart the mystic dream of love, 
Nor quench the thirst of knowledge in his breast. 
Yet though they heed me not, and see not me, 
These gifts are mine, desire, discontent, 

76 



SATAN UNBOUND 

To goad them on and upward toward a goal. 

They shall not move in utter ignorance, 

For henceforth they are haunted with my dreams. 

Masters they shall obtain, and slavery, 

Restraint and rulers and all wretchedness, 

Mad revolution, riotous revolt, 

Till none shall brook a master or a slave. 

Then ye shall build the universe of love, 

Then shall ye scale the heights of happiness, 

And grow in godhead, till the man is god. 

The curse ? I do defy the curse, and cry 

O Destiny, I too am Destiny. 

(Draws his sword and rushes off 
stage.) 

CURTAIN 



77 



Act II. 

A ruined castle in the depths of a dark rocky valley 
that forms a deep hemi-circle. High on a throne built 
of stone piled on stone sits Satan, a multitude in 
medieval costumes is prostrated before him. 

THE PEOPLE 

Hail, Satan, hail, thou Prince of Evil, hail. 

THE COMRADE 

Thine is the Kingdom of the World, and thine 
The hearts of men, the secret hearts of hate. 
Thine is his cunning, thine his craft, his guile. 

PEOPLE 

Triumph and victory! Hail, Satan, hail. 

COMRADE 

The heavens tremble and the earth is bowed. 
The gods, the changing gods, sink one by one 
To deep oblivion, like falling stars, 
And are dissolved and are not any more. 
The magic of thy might alone endures. 

78 



SATAN UNBOUND 

PEOPLE 

Hail, Satan, hail, thou Prince of Evil, hail. 

SATAN 

All ye who stab my solitude, ye men 
Who multiply my mocking loneliness, 
Numberless nothings, what would ye of me ? 

PEOPLE 

Suffer our homage, we would worship thee. 

SATAN 

Dark, dark within my soul enduring night, 

I may not see, I grope about in vain ! 

What man am I, whence came I here and why 

Enthroned for worship? As an actor reigns 

Illusion of illusions, so I rule. 

Memory like a ghost that haunts me flees, 

Betraying me again to passioned pain. 

Immortal doubts, that torture mortals, vex 

A soul that 'scapes not immortality. 

Oh, that this self would scatter drop by drop, 

Dissolve within the sea of sleep, and be 

One with eternal things eternally. 

COMKADE 

Master of men, behold the loveliness 

That lifts its beauty for thy praise. Command 

79 



SATAN UNBOUND 

The dance, and heed the rhythm of delight. 
Full sweet it is, to drift along the maze 
Of subtle sense, and steep the baffled soul 
In brief forgetfulness. Our Lord is sad, 
O maidens, weave a spell to snare his pain. 

(The young maidens dance before 
Satan.) 

SATAN 

Sorrow knows not an infidelity. 

Distraction breeds a deeper discontent, 

And thought alone brings peace to tortured thought. 

In vain these vanities. 

(Exit maidens.) 

COMRADE 

Yet turn thine eyes, 
Behold these night hawks, sorcerers whose spell 
So strong, so subtle, snares men to thy will, 
Mighty with mysteries a million years 
Will not unveil, they mock the mind of man. 
Shall not their science soothe thy strife ? 

SATAN 

Alas, 
In vain their mummery. I suffer on. 
Let these be gone. 

(Exit sorcerers.) 

80 



SATAN UNBOUND 



COMRADE 



Yet venerable men 
From farthest East, and out of distant West, 
Await thy presence. Let them pay their praise. 



SATAN" 

Speak each in turn his sum of foolishness, 
Some word may waken for me memory. 

THE POET 

Hail, Satan, hail, thou Prince of Evil, hail, 
For I will hymn thy conquest and thy fame, 
Poet am I, thy birthborn enemy. 
Of love I sang and of the heart of love, 
And how two move across the mystery 
Of multitudes, of daring distances, 
While stars and seas, attentive, tremulous, 
With mystic music murmur as they march, 
And meet and mingle, one with Destiny. 
Then lightly, from the lips of loveliness, 
Came laughter, shattering my sacred song. 
I tuned my lyre to sing of liberty, 
I shook the chains of men, unbinding slaves, 
While tyrants trembled, tortured in their turn. 
But with the fetters I had loosened each 
Would bind his brother, while the multitude, 
The many mightier than were the few, 
Turned freedom unto utter tyranny. 

81 



SATAN UNBOUND 

Then all my light grew darkness. In my pain 

I mocked at loveliness, and Beauty heard 

And light Love heeded. Kibaldry, I sang, 

While lovers trooped like fawning hounds at heel. 

The smilingly I praised the power of kings, 

Proclaimed the secret sense of slavery. 

I knew high favor, feted, I was free 

And grown to glory. So, the lesson learned, 

That in the Universe God's part is small, 

And Evil has the triumph of all time, 

I therefore in thy wisdom have prevailed, 

With song and praise I glorify thy name. 

SATAN 

Enough, his harmony is discord. Go ! 

His music heals me not, but smites my soul 

So scarred with suffering. Priest, have thy word. 

PEIEST OF THE EAST 

Out of the East a light, and we, who were 
The torches of a wisdom, worshipped long, 
Yea, we communed with all high holiness. 
We ordered days and dreams, consulting then 
With stars and suns, we were the sanctified. 
We peaceful, placid, like a Buddha grown 
To lowly greatness, tender of all life 
That flows and fills the changing firmament, 
Wrought toward perfection. We through love 

learned love, 
High-hearted hope, and healing happiness. 

82 



SATAN UNBOUND 



SATAN 

Ye hail me Prince of Evil ! Wherefore then 
Mock ye, and whisper thus before my Throne % 

PEIEST OF THE WEST 

Give heed and hear, we walked aside with God 
And we proclaimed the Prince of Peace. We sang 
No mystery unto a wondering world, 
We whispered this, the Christ-word, Brotherhood, 
The word of God made man, to make man God. 

SATAN 

From out the dark, the lightning of a dream ! 
Say on, yet much I marvel what ye mean. 

PEIEST OF THE EAST 

We fasted, and we fled through day on day, 

We mocked man's folly, yet no man gave heed, 

Or listened meaningly to us, who held 

The key of life and death, and deathless things. 

Then, at the end of many a desert year, 

Our hands were empty and our hollow hearts 

Were haunted by hard hate, and pride of place. 

PEIEST OF THE WEST 

We, preaching peace, were smitten with the sword, 
Shepherding wolves, we wearied. We divined 

83 



SATAN UNBOUND 

The wonder of a power to oppress 
A people pitiless. Then taking thought — 
The sacred truths, the secret truths of man, 
Became within our hands a subtle snare, 
A net cast craftily about the soul ; 
For man more fears eternity unknown 
Than smiting sword and sudden biting spear. 
We bid the slaves renounce, resign and seek 
But sacrifice, submitting to our will. 
We nailed Christ on a dogma crucified. 
He found a heaven, we invented hell. 

PRIEST OF THE EAST 

So fought we men with fear, yea, fearlessly 
We set a yoke upon humanity ! 

PRIEST OF THE WEST 

We ruled and rule. For this, O Satan, hail. 
Each people has its god, each god its day, 
But we remain obscuring God and cry — 

PEIEST OF THE EAST 

Hail, Satan, hail, triumphant thou of time. 

SATAN 

What part have I in this, and what in these 
Who weary not of wretched wickedness ? 
Shall all these shadows shut away the sun ? 

84 



SATAN UNBOUND 

KING OF THE EAST 

Hail, King of Kings, our Kingdoms bow to thee ! 

We were the fathers of a flock who fed 

With equal justice all our children. Lo! 

The races and the nations in revolt 

Called us old gray beards. Greed of gain, and lust, 

And hatred, beat within the blood of man. 

So led, we were their leaders, bared the sword, 

Dissension sowing, played them man 'gainst man, 

And smote them with the blade of fear or bribed 

The bravest with debauchery and lust. 

Then all their swords upheld the sword of state, 

For every slave holds sacred slavery, 

And cries himself the one man nobly free. 

KING OF THE WEST 

Thus we who held the earth in fealty 
Do homage, Satan, subject to thy will. 

CAPTAIN 

I lured the simple from the soil, and sowed 
The seed of hatred, setting men at strife 
Against his brother, all unknown, unseen. 
So war awakened war, that will not die, 
But feeds devouring peace, and all her works, 
Imaginings, inventions, blood and brain. 
Thus man, who would not harm a flying fawn, 
Alone so gentle, laughs aloud at life, 

85 



SATAN UNBOUND 

When bandied to a menace, all his might 
Unslaked in strife sets on to slay and slay. 

SATAN 

And ye resplendent with the glint of gold, 

What men are ye whom Kings and Priests salute ? 

MERCHANT 

The merchants we, the marvels of thy might ! 

For us, the kings in bonden slavery 

Have scarred the earth with sword, and dragged 

the sea. 
For us the priests strike terror to the soul, 
Disarm the daring with the dread of death, 
That slaves may starve, and strive for us and ours. 
Each has his little weight. We buy, we buy 
The brain, the beauty of the best. We sell 
Heart, honor, happiness. King, people, priest 
Are puppets that Ave play for gold. Kejoice! 
Gold glittering, gold glorious, thy gold 
By thee once given. Thine the praise, O King ! 

SATAN 

Does the world weigh and balance 'gainst a coin, 

A hoop, a circle, beaten out of ore ? 

It were a thing to laugh at, if 'twere true ! 

What word, oh woman, would thy homage bring? 

86 



SATAN UNBOUND 



COURTESAN 



King, I too have conquered through thy guile. 

1 asked but love, I gave but tenderness, 
Then man, who held my heart, cried out, a Toy ! 
And like a child he broke it bit by bit, 
Despising all my loveliness, pursued 

And valued only when denied. Through pain 

Came understanding suddenly to me. 

Then I abased myself, the secret slave, 

Lips lisping love I lured with poisoned lust ! 

I gave not love, I took of glowing gold 

And hid my heart that all hearts should be mine. 

My heart that sang of sorrow now is still, 

Hushed, hollow, hidden. Vengeance is avenged. 

But me none master, whatsoe'er his might 

No man escapes the secret snare of sense. 

So I prevailed, and none elude my lure. 

For this I praise thee. 

SATAN" 

Yet methinks a tear 
Has trembled for this tenderness so torn. 
Her words strike chill, and in my heart a weight 
Of weariness. O world, is this thy sum % 

POET 

Give me thy subtlety to snare with song. 
87 



SATAN UNBOUND 

PEIESTS 

Give us the wiles of all thy wickedness. 

KINGS 

Give us thy power to oppress the pride. 

MERCHANTS 

Protect us from all pitying of pain. 

COURTESAN 

Give me thy beauty and thy deep disdain. 
Let none renounce, revile us for our shame. 

POET 

Within thy glory lies our glory, slaves, 
We seek thy service, slaving all to thee. 

SATAN 

(descending the throne) 

If ye be slaves, and I your Master, see 
The might of me, in this that I alone 
Hound ye and hunt ye from me, who despise 
Servitude, hating all your hatefulness; 
Ye who are held, and I whose helplessness 
Has harbored ye. 

88 



SATAN UNBOUND 

KING OF THE EAST 

None may resist his wrath. 

KING OF THE WEST 

His might is master. 

PRIEST OF THE EAST 

Let us then devise 
Some deeper wickedness to please his will. 

MERCHANT 

We are unworthy, flee ! 

ALL 

Hail, Satan, hail ! 

(Satan, with drawn sword, drives them 
from him. Only the Comrade 
remains.) 

SATAN 

Are these then men, is there in them a blood 
That beats, or has my brain brought forth this 

brood, 
These doubts and these disasters, each a death 
Of something dear, and something beautiful, 
Song, worship, force, and love the light of all ? 
Am I become that Evil % Is there then 

89 



SATAN UNBOUND 

A darkness that is more than absent light ? 

Is Death a living thing ? Alas, alas, 

The anguish of an immortality, 

Aching along the yearning of my years. 

I conjure ye, ye voices of the night, 

Ye little leaves, ye waters murmuring, 

Ye starry fields unfolding flowers of fire, 

Life-forging forces, ay, I conjure ye, 

Dim dreams, that haunt me with delusive dread, 

Whisper the meaning of me, breathe my name, 

Echo me up the past, what man am I ? 

COMEADE 

Satan, remember, and recall the curse, 
O sinning slave of sacred Destiny, 
Submit, and cease the cycle of thy pain ! 

SATAN 

Now wave on wave, the sea of memory 

Surges about me, lifts me, sweeps me on 

Back to the dawn of days. The dream, the dream 

Of passionate release from pulsing pain, 

Of perfect peace. 

comrade 

The secret of the gods 
By thee was given to man's ignorance. 
See what a world has wrought and weigh it well. 

90 



SATAN UNBOUND 

Man has undone thy might, and thou alas, 
Art fallen to his flesh. Nor shall his soul 
Soar upward to the spirit of thy dream. 
With thee came sin, submit thee, sacrifice. 

SATAN 

Is there a ransom ? 

COMRADE 

Listen and obey. 
Within the curse is hidden the escape. 

SATAN 

Is there an end to anguish, shall I heed 
The little murmur of a mighty joy ? 
For sorrow makes us shy of suffering. 
I dare not. Yet say on. 

COMRADE 

Weigh well my words. 
Deny the truths of Destiny, proclaim 
That man is but a mortal, ignorant, 
And wisdom but a weariness. Again, 
Give back the secrets to the hidden gods. 
For what avail great gifts to little lives? 
In recompense, rule thou and be, in truth, 
Evil and Prince of Evil. Let that sin 
Which is elusion be reality. 
So the gods triumph, triumph thou in turn ! 

91 



SATAN UNBOUND 

SATAN 

Is evil not triumphant, people, priest, 
Do they not worship wickedness ? 

COMRADE 

And yet, 
If there be one of these, but only one, 
Demanding, and desiring, Destiny 
To give him godhead, he shall still prevail. 
A man's dreams are immortal, they endure 
Within the matrix of Eternity, 
They work their way, and are brought forth in 

time. 
Consider well this truce and wisely choose, 
For by refusal, doomed art thou, until 
That soul who knows not evil, brings release. 
What cycles then of aimless cruelty 
Shall capture thee, upon thy quest in vain? 

SATAN 

Smite me, and sunder me with suffering, 
I will go forth to seek that soul. Again, 
I do defy the gods to take the gift. 
Here in myself I will absorb each sin, 
Each suffering that plagues the race of man. 

COMRADE 

Woe, woe is thee and me, eternal woe, 
Weeping and weariness of world on world ! 

92 



SATAN UNBOUND 

The surging sea will sob thy suffering, 

Pulsating in thy pain. The wild winds sigh, 

And moan about the mountains, murmuring 

" Pain, ever pain." While drop by drop, the rain 

Tender and tremulous with tears will seek 

The bosom of the earth. So, secretly, 

Spreads sorrow like a mist. 

SATAN 

Pain, ever pain! 
I murmur not, let come what may, I wait. 

(Enter right stage a Leper clothed in 
rags and covered with a long dusty 
coat, a staff in his hand.) 

THE LEPER 

Misery, misery, have pity, Prince! 

SATAN 

Who art thou, speak ? 

LEPER 

My body is a wound 
That scars my soul with ceaseless suffering. 
I live, and death lives in my leprosy. 
My purse is poor. 



SATAN UNBOUND 

SATAN 

O. human misery ! 

leper, lost to loveliness, whom life 
Holds hard in tyranny, peace be with thee. 
Give me thy cloak, so, let thy flesh have faith ; 
Disorder, and disease, and discord fear 

The force concealed, the force we may reveal, 
Yet understand not. Of the life of me, 

1 give thee life, and of my faith, the faith 
To heal thee. Go, thy flesh is fair, yet, stay, 
For I will take upon me misery, 

And poverty, and every ill of man, 
To expiate all human ignorance. 

(He casts aivay his crown and clothes 
himself in the Leper s cloak, chang- 
ing his sword for the Leper's staff.) 

So will I journey, till I find that soul 
Who knows not slavery, who knows not sin, 
Denying evil, who demands, with me, 
Of Destiny divinity for man. 

(The b eg gar lingers.) 

Not gone, not grateful, dumb, for all this good ? 

LEPER 

The greater ill remains, the deep disease 
That breeds all others, see my purse is poor, 

94 



SATAN UNBOUND 

So lack I food and fortune, heart and home, 
Permitted only for a price. 

(Satan gives him money, and as he 
fastens his wallet the Leper steals 
his purse.) 

A fool ! 
A fair, fond, futile fool ! 

Fool's gold, fool's faith, fool's folly. Best away: 
The saints protect me from his evil eye. 

(Exit the Leper crossing himself, as a 
crowd rushes in left stage crying.) 

COMEADE 

Master, what canst thou make of man ? 

SATAN 

A god! 

COMEADE 

The hosts return, let them not see thy shame. 

(On every side the people come timidly 
forward.) 

Our master is not here. 

PEIEST OF THE EAST 

Still we would praise 
The proud perfection of his power. 

95 



SATAN UNBOUND 

king of the west (seeing Satan) 

Hist! 
A beggar. 

POET 

Ouf! A beast. 

MEECHANT 

Go not too near, 
He breeds pollution in our feast. 

PEIEST OF THE WEST 

Not so, 
He tells our triumph. 'Tis a holy man 
To be so plagued with every poverty. 
Accost him. Father ! 

SATAN 

Friends, where am I come ? 

KING OF THE WEST 

In Satan's power. 

SATAN 

Who may Satan be? 

POET 

Mockery ! 

96 



SATAN UNBOUND 

MEECHANT 

Blasphemy! 

PRIEST OF THE WEST 

Stupidity ! 

Worship the Prince of Evil, he who reigns 

Above the earth, within the heart of man. 

SATAN 

There is no evil. 

PEIEST OF THE WEST 

Satan, Prince of Sin. 

SATAN 

There is no sin. 

PEIEST OF THE WEST 

What then? 

SATAN 

This, ignorance — ! 
While veil on veil obscures the growing good. 

MEECHANT 

Out on him. 

PEIEST OF THE WEST 

Who is Satan, canst thou say? 
07 



SATAN UNBOUND 



SATAN 



Illusion in your eyes, he in whose heart 
Is understanding. 



POET 

Eiddles ! 

PEIEST OF THE EAST 



Rank revolt. 
God even to the goodly is not great, 
Unless he be at strife with Satan, sin. 

POET 

Worship upon thy knees, and wander on. 

(He tries to force Satan to his Jcnees.) 

SATAN 

I bend not, bow not. 

PEIEST OF THE EAST 

Beggar, who art thou ? 

SATAN 

A god who gropes toward greatness like thyself. 

MEECHANT 

Tell us, oh wise man, each what fortune waits. 
98 



SATAN UNBOUND 

KING OF THE WEST 

Behold a King and tremble. 

SATAN 

Thou a King? 
Who canst not rule thy slightest mad caprice 1 

KING OF THE EAST 

A King whom all men fear. 

SATAN 

And this I say 
That thou in turn shalt fear all men, and die 
Of this thy fear, dragged clown and down and down. 

KING OF THE EAST 

A living insolence that merits death! 

PEIEST OF THE EAST 

What fate is mine ? 

SATAN 

I see the worm of pride 
That breeds within thy heart, thy heart of hate. 
I see thy shadow spread, obscuring God, 
And yet I say the sun at last shall show 
Thine emptiness. 

99 



SATAN UNBOUND 



MERCHANT 



What fate is mine ? 
Though these men vanish ? 



SATAN 



Yet a poverty 
Is in thy hungering for happiness, 
And death shall steal thy gold, and time destroy 
Thy tribe that long has triumphed over men. 

COURTESAN 

Audi? 

SATAN 

Love flees thy lure, though all men yield, 
Till loathing dispossesses loveliness. 

PRIEST OF THE EAST 

What man is he who mocks us ? 

PRIEST OF THE WEST 

We are poor 
Within his eyes, diminished in our own. 

POET 

What canst thou know of us, or Destiny ? 
100 



SATAN UNBOUND 

SATAN 

Who may discern the hidden hand of Fate, 
Or what wild way the sudden turning leads, 
Or in what ambush lurks the fatal foe ? 
In riches, desolation, poverty, 
And dread disease, unmake the force of man. 
Therefore let arrogance not bid ye mock, 
Yet in thy pride remember that the stars, 
And every force that fills the firmament, 
Attend thy going out, thy coming in. 

POET 

If these men be not great, O little man, 
What then is greatness ? 

MEKCHANT 

Question not a fool. 

SATAN 

Nothing is little, nothing great, for each 
Holds in its fragments something of the whole, 
And through the finest fibre flows each force 
That ebbs, and emanates, and is the god. 

POET 

Out, out on him. He shall be judged. Thy 
name? 

(Satan draws himself up as if to dom- 
inate them. Hunting horns sound 
in distance.) 

101 



SATAN UNBOUND 

SATAN 

Satan ! 

POET 

Avenge the gods this blasphemy. 

(Satan with his staff tries to drive the 
multitude from him. He is easily 
disarmed and thrown on his hnees.) 

SATAN 

What, am I prisoner of misery? 

Is my might fallen in this feeble flesh ? 

POET 

The hunt, the hunt, a living foe for prey ! 



A spear. 



KING OF THE EAST 
MERCHANT 

A lash! 

CAPTAIN 

An arrow ! 

PRIEST OF THE EAST 

Nay, a crown ! 
102 



SATAN UNBOUND 



PRIEST OF THE WEST 



A mitre ! 



ALL 

Satan, hail, defend thee, Prince ! 

(During this scene the hunting horns 
have come nearer and nearer. The 
hunters rush across the stage, 
joined by the crowd. Satan lashed 
on, goaded by spear and sword, is 
slowly driven out.) 

POET 

Hound on, and bait him, let the death cry be : 
Satan, thou Prince of Evil, hail, all hail ! 

(The hunting horns sound the death. 
The stage is left empty for an in- 
stant, excepting for the Comrade, 
who cowers by the throne. Satan, 
wounded and bleeding, returns and 
falls at the foot of the throne.) 

comrade 

O Satan, yield thee unto Fate, be wise, 
No god, no man, shall conquer Destiny. 
Eepent and be thou King, and reign again. 
Become that evil which is triumphant. 

103 



SATAN UNBOUND 

satan (raising himself painfully) 

I curse thee, get thee hence. 

(The Comrade leaves him sorrowfully. 
In the distance the hunting horns 
sound joyfully, the multitude 
rushes across the stage crying, 
"Hail, Satan, Prince of Evil, 
hail!") 

Pain, ever pain! 

CURTAIN 



104 



Act III. 

Early morning, just before dawn, in a cemetery in 
Paris. The towers of the city are seen in the distance. 
Back stage a high wall. Right stage a marble vault. 
Centre stage a freshly made grave. Here and there 
cypress trees. Left stage a path. Discovered Satan, a 
very old man clothed in modern rags. He wanders 
from grave to grave as if vainly seeking an escape from 
life. During the scene the stage brightens until at the 
end of the act there is full sunrise. 

SATAN 

We drift and drift, yet may not sink or die, 

Nor harbor and be gone, but on and on 

With secret currents, or resistless wind, 

We wander from the wherefore to the why. 

Is there a goal, is there a sudden sleep, 

Is there a bourn to all this bitterness ? 

And we, what make we here ? If this alone, 

Hope held to beacon us, that day by day 

We sow some secret seed, which Fate shall tend, 

And flower into human happiness ; 

Else were our life a futile mockery, 

And immortality a dream, 

Holding us helpless in our ignorance. 

105 



SATAN UNBOUND 

Cycles and cities change, and centuries, 

The wheel of time revolves, and turn by turn 

Come ancient and forgotten vanities, 

Yet no new thing of beauty or of joy. 

A people's hecatomb of history 

Leaves but a cloud of dust to mark its day ; 

And as the race, the man, his morning spent 

In passionate acquiring. Pence on pence 

He piles, and wrangles wretchedly for gold, 

As sordid urchins bicker in the dust. 

Gloated at last, from lust to lust he goes, 

And poisoning with pleasure drugs his days, 

From luxury to luxury allured, 

So do the nations and the man decay, 

Heedless of life, and every whispering force 

That breathes about him, softly murmuring 

Mysteries of his own immortal might. 

O night, wherein all things await the day, 

Mine eyes are dark, I suffer on and on, 

Yet loosen not the sum of suffering — 

What shapes of sorrow seek me, what are ye ? 

(During this scene four Phantoms 
have come slowly from behind the 
trees where they stand peering at 
Satan. They are the famous 
rebels, Socrates, Brutus, Mirabeau 
and Washington.) 



106 



SATAN UNBOUND 

1st phantom 

We are not men but memories of men, 
Illusive apparitions that remain. 
In death we die not, having dreamed thy dream 
Of immortality. 

SATAN 

"Why, this is well. 

1st phantom 

We anguish on, like shadows of a life 
Existing, yet we live not, hour by hour ^ 
We curse thee, we, alas, who may not die, 
We who endure ! — 

SATAN 

What would ye then of me ? 

2nd phantom 

Make us as mortals, give us once again 
The sudden sleep of death. 

3rd phantom 

Take back thy lie 
And cry there is no immortality. 
107 



SATAN UNBOUND 



1st phantom 



Pity our helplessness, too great the dream ; 
Yea, give us death indeed. We are but men, 
Earth of the earth. 

SATAN 

Are ye not dead indeed, 
A living image of that nothing, Death, 
How know ye that ye live % 

1st phantom 
In that we suffer, life is, this we know. 

SATAN 

Each drop of blood weeps pity in my veins, 
Mine eyes are tears that hide from me the light. 

1st phantom 
Deny. 

2nd phantom 
Absolve me from the sin of hope. 

3rd phantom 
Cursed thy gift and thy revolt. 

satan (shrinking from them) 

Away! 
Ye vain temptations, ye disastrous doubts. 

108 



SATAN UNBOUND 

1st phantom 
Drive us not forth. 

SATAN 

What men in life were ye ? 

2nd phantom 
We were the rebels. 

3ed phantom 

Each man in his day 
Lifted the torch of freedom in his land, 
And stabbed at slavery of heart or hand. 

2nd phantom 

Men called me Brutus, Caesar I laid low 

And, slaying friendship, smote his heart and mine 

At one fell blow. Kome, what of Kome to-day % 

Is there not still a Csesar, still a slave ? 

If Caesar's virtues die, his vice lives on, 

And little men make mighty with a crown, 

Parcelling power. 

SATAN 

What deed for men did ye ? 
109 



SATAN UNBOUND 

3rd phantom 

Am I not he who to the march of kings 

Triumphant in their tyranny cried : " Halt," 

So that no King again shall dare be king, 

But wears alone the show of royalty 

As actors may, oft trembling at night 

To hear the wind that whispers, " Mirabeau! " 

What of my deed, alas, what of my day, 

For revolution riotous with blood 

Blotted out freedom, rivers running red 

Wrote on the earth the name Napoleon. 

So slavery leads on to slavery. 



4th phantom 

I lighted men to long-loved liberty, 

Kingless and crownless, still a conqueror 

Baptized with blood a nation blessed at birth, 

Freemen within a land for ever free. 

They of their greatness, grinding gold on gold, 

Fashioned a Moloch for their worshipping. 

They sweat, they groan, they toil, they strive, they 

slave, 
Each man oppresses each, and over all 
The multiple, the mighty multitude, 
With prejudice and passion, snare on snare, 
Binding their brothers, shout the old refrain 
Arrogant, crying: We alone are free! 

110 



SATAN UNBOUND 

1st phantom 
Suffer us then to die, and cease the dream. 

2nd phantom 
For we are damned, defying Destiny. 

3rd phantom 
Where is the man, the nation that is free ? 

4th phantom 

Lies, lies that lead us, idly on and on, 

We who have seen the dream that will not die. 

SATAN 

Each word is like a wound where poison burns 
And tortures. Shall I slay their hope, deny, 
Submit, and sleep beyond the strife of sense, 
Or dare despair ? Are these then of my brain ? 
Doubts that would dwindle me, for well I know 
No god, nor world of gods, nor master men 
Destroy a man, unless he smite himself 
With soul surrender. 

1st phantom 

Satan, give us peace. 
Ill 



SATAN UNBOUND 

2nd phantom 
Deny. 

Let man be man, submitted animal, 
Vain hope of wisdom, immortality. 

3rd phantom 

We wait thy word, we would revolt no more, 
But sink to senselessness and henceforth sleep. 

SATAN 

A man's doubts are his foes and with decay 
Like worms they work within, undoing all. 
I, do I doubt, or have my tears obscured 
The light within, and hid the world without. 
Better I say the dream, if but a lie, 
Than sworded truth if it were truth indeed. 

3rd phantom 
The world of wretchedness denies thy truth. 

4th phantom 
Man is man's master, fate the foe of all. 

SATAN 

The dream, the dream, is all a mockery, 
Vain aspiration, vain each winged hope ! 
Or is not thus the sole reality, 
The matrix and the nucleus, this dream 

112 



SATAN UNBOUND 

Born of our brains, our being, freed and free 
And deathless, doomed to life when we are fled ? 
And yet, and yet — ? I will not doubt the dream, 
I who trust not the doubt. Ye shapes, begone ! 

3rd phantom 

We lived in vain, and vainly did we die. 

We gave our blood, we shed men's blood in vain. 

SATAN 

Ever, for ever blood, so have ye doomed 
Unto disaster all that ye would do. 
With violence none conquers violence. 
With hate man fathers hate. 

3rd phantom 

Shall not a man 
Hate evil, smite a tyrant with revenge ? 

SATAN 

So ye disarm the foe, and so become 
The foe to freedom, falling on the sword 
That armed the enemy. Thus ye in turn 
Are conquered, never conquerors. Revolt ? 
Ye have not known revolt, ye little men, 
A prey to passion, smiting pain with pain. 
Conquest corrupts the conqueror. And ye, 
Alas, ye see not, this the truth, the truth 

113 



SATAN UNBOUND 

That he who stabs his hated enemy 

Smites something sacred in himself, and wounds 

Humanity. Which one is clear of blood ? 

Let him stand forth, to him I will reply. 

Then let him judge of me, and of my dream, 

Of my rebellion. Unto him I say, 

Out of the humble shall come forth the great, 

And everywhere the moving multitude 

Shall wake and wonder, " Lo, I am a man, 

" My master, and my brother's brother," so 

Eevolt shall come, revolt and discontent 

That seeks some higher self, on, on and on. 

3ed phantom 

Alas, alas, this too is but a dream. 

(In the distance is heard a faint 
music.) 

SATAN 

Why, look ye, this is all a man may do : 
Dream nobly, nobly do and ask no more, 
Neither result, reward, nor recompense, 
These come not in a day, no thing is lost, 
And loveliness leads on to loveliness. 
It is enough. 

3 ED PHANTOM 

The dawn ! 
114 



SATAN UNBOUND 

4th phantom 



Away, away 



(The Phantoms vanish, the stage 
lightens. The music comes nearer.) 



SATAN 

A music, and a murmur as of light 
Breaks in upon my night, some secret song 
Accompanies my words and wings them on, 
Saying that which I would might be, alas, 
If that it might be. Pain, for ever pain. 
And yet the night is but the womb whereof 
A new day and a new joy shall be born. 
Is not the sun a symbol that the dark 
Must droop and die ? Disaster and despair 
Yield to the light ? Behold how ray on ray, 
As little waves leap up along the shore, 
Floods all the darkness. Like a breath of dawn 
A maiden moves across this place of death. 

(A working girl comes doivn the path; 
she carries in one hand a humble 
bunch of flowers and on one arm 
a lunch basket. She goes forward 
toward the new-made grave without 
seeing Satan.) 

I would not with my weariness destroy 
The freshness of her fragrant faith in life. 

115 



SATAN UNBOUND 

Yet I would speak with her and know her heart. 
Maiden, be not afraid. 

MAIDEN 

Why should I fear, 
The poor are rich in pity toward the poor ! 
I come to lay upon a comrade's grave 
A flower. 

SATAN 

On my life thy loveliness 

Has laid its healing beauty. He who died 

Was loved, and yet no sorrow stains thy face ? 

MAIDEN 

Peace is with him, with me, for well he died 
In strife for peace, a workman smitten down 
Opposing all oppression, war and death. 
So dying, he has bought for others bread, 
A crumb, but crumb by crumb we knead the loaf 
Till none shall hunger, none shall be afraid. 

SATAN 

She cries not out against her pain, nor weeps 
In wild revolt. 

MAIDEN 

But you, what do you here ? 
Deep in the damp, poor stranger, come away. 

116 



SATAN UNBOUND 

SATAN 

I am a wanderer, no home is mine. 

MAIDEN 

How weak, how wretched, take this bread and eat, 

This wine. I have not more to give, alas, 

Slight fare, my noonday meal, but sweeter shared. 

SATAN 

Come not so near, beware of me, behold 

These wounds and these. Know you not evil comes 

To him who gives out goodness ? 

MAIDEN 

Sorrow shared 
Is sorrow halved, and heals the heart that gives. 

SATAN 

I have such need 

MAIDEN 

What then is lacking most ? 

SATAN 

Life ! In my flesh there rages living death. 
I am a leper, in the times gone by 

117 



SATAN UNBOUND 

A child's blood, so men said, would cure this ill. 

What if I sprang upon thee, with my teeth 

Tore from thy flesh the blood to cleanse my pain ? 

(The Maiden wonderingly hares Tier 
arm and holds it out to him.) 

No tremor tells of fear. 



MAIDEN 

Drink life again. 

SATAN 

O child, take back the sacred sacrifice. 

MAIDEN 

There is no pleasure such as healing pain. 

SATAN 

She fears not evil and she knows not sin. 
Is this not still some snare of suffering, 
Or shall she bring me ransom and release ? 
Still must I prove her. 

MAIDEN 

What thing may I do, 

What else is lacking, stranger ? 

118 



SATAN UNBOUND 



Am I a mortal ? 



SATAN 

Search my face, 



MAIDEN 

Why, a man, what else ? 

SATAN 



Look well upon me, I am he men hate, 
The spirit of all evil, hatred's self. 

MAIDEN 

Sorrow and suffering will scar the soul, 
Distort, disform the very mind of man, 
And happiness alone can heal a man 
And make him holy. Stranger, let us go. 

SATAN 

Go? 

MAIDEN 

Come with me, although my home be small 
It is thy shelter. 

SATAN 

I ! I share thy home ? 
I have no part in thy humanity. 
Nor man, nor god am I, but one whose name 

119 



SATAN UNBOUND 

Has ruled the centuries, Satan, a force, 
The spirit of all evil, and the soul 
Of evil through the ages, in revolt 
Against the jealous force of Destiny. 

maiden (laughing indulgently) 

Satan ? A myth of priestcraft, and a snare 
For cringing crowds. 

SATAN 

And evil, is that too 
A myth, the hurt man does to man, the pain ? 
Is this not evil ? 

MAIDEN 

Only ignorance, 
Deep ignorance of good. 

SATAN 

Her words like balm 
Drop, healing me of life and all its wounds. 

MAIDEN 

Yet once a man awoke and dared a dream, 
Revolting at the littleness of man, 

120 



SATAN UNBOUND 

Demanding from the hand of Destiny 
Wisdom and knowledge of the good and ill. 
He fell, as blinded by a light too great 
For unawakened eyes. Yet all things grow 
And come in season. So this too shall be, 
And every force be subject to man's soul, 
For in and through him grows the only good. 

SATAN 

What thing is needful for a man to do ? 

MAIDEN 

Set ye a smile upon your lips to see 

The follies of mankind. Shed ye a tear, 

A tear of tenderness, for all their pain, 

In pity of the evil that they do. 

Rebel against all human misery, 

Demanding joy for all, for all delight. 

Impatient of perfection, on and on, 

Each peacefully toward peace pursue the dream. 

SATAN 

A sudden joy has slain my suffering, 

And I grow weak to know my freedom near. 

MAIDEN 

Lean all thy weariness upon my strength. 
121 



SATAN UNBOUND 



SATAN 



Immortal sight is mine, this thing I know — 
I too am Destiny, and must prevail. 
So pain and discord and revolt drive on 
A man to seek some better state, some goal. 
The dream to-day, to-morrow lives and leads 
On, on and on ; so I, I too have been 
A working and a way of Destiny. 

(The music which has from time to 
time come nearer bursts out with 
full force now, bringing the voices 
of a multitude of men singing the 
Internationale.) 

What march of men is trembling the earth, 
What song is pulsing life, what joy is near ? 



MAIDEN 

The humble, the high-hearted who with hope 
War against war, opposing pride with peace, 
And calling the oppressor brother, come 
To pay a tribute to the Comrade's grave. 
They sing the song of life, of liberty. 

(The workmen, in their everyday 
clothes, are seen coming down the 
path. Satan, realizing that his 
taslc is done, slips to the earth.) 

122 



SATAN UNBOUND 

SATAN 

Let thy lips sweeten sleep, my time is come. 

(With the help of the maiden he 
struggles to his feet.) 

Not thus, but as a conquerer I rise 
To greet the future, and the victory. 

(Satan dies, standing, as the song stops 
abruptly; when the men see him, 
they come forward as he slips to 
the ground from the maidens 
arms.) 

A WORKMAN 

What man is this ? 

MAIDEN 

What matters it, a man, 
Bury in him all human suffering, 
And set your faces to salute the dawn. 

(While certain workmen force open the 
gate of the vault, others lift Satan 
tenderly and place him within the 
vault. They stand with bare heads 
about the humble grave of the 
workman, and each lays on it a 
flower. Absolute silence for a 
moment, and then, as if suddenly 

123 



SATAN UNBOUND 

wakening, they pick up their 
shovels and pickaxes and shoulder- 
ing them, start off towards their 
work singing to the music of the 
Internationale the following song.) 

COMRADES 

Comrades, a hymn of our hopeful humanity, 
Father of all of the gods of the future, 
Neither a song for the idle nor cowardly 
Lurking in luxury, hidebound in prejudice ; 
Nay, but a song for our children's own children, 
Wiser than we who are weak in our wondering. — 
Pacing the foe, we combative, provocative, 
Peaceful and passionate, bountiful builders. 
Ever rebellious, and ever revolting, 
We discontented with all but perfection, 
Levelling caste, yea and lifting the lowliest ; 
Breaking the barriers, bursting the boundaries. 
Knowing not nations, nor class in its crippling, 
Woman as man sacred, sanctified, beautiful, 
Comforting, even compelling with brotherhood, 
Scoffing denial, assertive and clamorous, 
Hateful of hatred, and loving all loveliness, 
Damning the sin, and the sorrow of suffering, 
Riotous toward resignation and sacrifice, 
Wresting from nature, our mother, our murderer, 
Life for the living, delight and the joy thereof ! 
Healing the heart of man's hate with our happiness, 

124 



SATAN unbound 

Seeking the God that is deep in the depths of us — 
Groping and growing toward greatness, in little- 
ness, 
We who are chanting the hymn of humanity, 
Hearing the wind of the world whisper, " Com- 
rades ! " 

CUETAIN 



125 



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